Methods and apparatus to correlate census measurement data with panel data

ABSTRACT

Methods, apparatus, and systems are disclosed to correlate census measurement data with panel data. An example method includes accessing a message sent from a requesting device in response to accessing media that includes a tag causing the requesting device to send the message to a monitoring entity with an identification of a geographic location of the requesting device and media identifying information. The example method also includes determining locations of a plurality of panelist homes and comparing the geographic location of the requesting device with the locations of the panelist homes. When the geographic location of the requesting device is within a threshold distance of a first one of the panelist homes, identifying a user of the requesting device as a panelist residing at the first panelist home, and associating the media identifying information with panelist data associated with the first one of the panelist homes.

RELATED APPLICATION

This patent arises from a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 14/132,626, filed Dec. 18, 2013, now U.S. Pat. No. ______, whichclaims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/815,544,filed on Apr. 24, 2013. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/132,626 andU.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/815,544 are hereby incorporatedby reference in their entireties.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

This disclosure relates generally to audience measurement, and, moreparticularly, to methods and apparatus to correlate census measurementdata with panel data.

BACKGROUND

Audience measurement of media (e.g., any type of content and/oradvertisements such as broadcast television and/or radio, stored audioand/or video played back from a memory such as a digital video recorderor a digital video disc, a webpage, audio and/or video presented (e.g.,streamed) via the Internet, a video game, etc.) often involvescollection of media identifying data (e.g., signature(s),fingerprint(s), code(s), tuned channel identification information, timeof exposure information, etc.) and people data (e.g., useridentifier(s), demographic data associated with audience member(s),etc.). The media identifying data and the people data can be combined togenerate, for example, media exposure data indicative of amount(s)and/or type(s) of people that were exposed to specific piece(s) ofmedia.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram of an example system constructed in accordance withthe teachings of this disclosure to correlate census measurement datawith panel data.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of an example message path illustrating metering oftagged media.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of an example message path illustrating correlatingcensus measurement data with panel data.

FIG. 3A is a diagram of an example environment constructed in accordancewith the teachings of this disclosure to correlate census measurementdata with panel data.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an example implementation of the audiencemeasurement entity server of FIG. 1 that may facilitate correlation ofcensus measurement data with panel data.

FIG. 5 is an example data table storing data representing tagged mediaimpressions that may be collected by the example audience measuremententity server of FIGS. 1-4.

FIG. 6 is an example data table that may be stored by the audiencemeasurement entity server of FIGS. 1-4.

FIG. 7 is an example data table storing data representing tagged mediaimpressions correlated with panel samples that may be collected by theexample audience measurement entity server of FIGS. 1-4.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart representative of example machine-readableinstructions that may be executed to initiate logging taggedimpressions.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart representative of example machine-readableinstructions that be executed to determine whether to correlate taggedmedia impressions with registered panelists.

FIG. 10 is an example tag including pseudo code that may be executed togenerate a beacon in response to accessing tagged media at a clientdevice

FIG. 11 is a flowchart representative of example machine-readableinstructions that may be executed to generate a beacon at a clientdevice.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart representative of example machine-readableinstructions that may be executed to generate a beacon in response toaccessing tagged media at a client device.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of an example processing platform capable ofexecuting the example machine-readable instructions 8, 9, 11 and/or 12to implement the example audience measurement entity server of FIGS.1-4.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Example methods, systems and apparatus disclosed herein may be used tomeasure audience exposure and/or interaction with online media accessedby users. For example, techniques disclosed herein enable correlatingcensus measurement data in panel samples.

Monitoring impressions of online media (e.g., website content, audio,video text, etc. such as an advertisement, a streaming program, etc.) isuseful for generating impression statistics for the online media. Asused herein, an impression is defined to be an event in which a home orindividual is exposed to the corresponding media (e.g., content and/oradvertisement). Thus, an impression represents a home or an individualhaving been exposed to media (e.g., an advertisement, content, a groupof advertisements and/or a collection of content). A quantity ofimpressions or impression count, with respect to online media, is thetotal number of times media (e.g., an advertisement, an advertisementcampaign, a streaming program, etc.) has been accessed by a webpopulation (e.g., the number of times the media is accessed as decreasedby, for example, pop-up blockers and/or increased by, for example,retrieval from local cache memory). A user device (e.g., a mobiledevice), via a browser that renders media or a non-browser basedapplication that presents media, requests the online media from a mediaprovider (e.g., one or more content providers and/or advertisingentities) by sending a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request to anInternet address defined by a uniform resource locator (URL) specifiedby the media provider (e.g., a content provider and/or advertisingentity). To enable monitoring of user access to Internet resources, insome examples, participating media providers (e.g., publishers ofwebsites, advertisement providers, etc.) insert or embed a tag withinthe source (e.g., Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) code) of theirrespective media. The tag may include Java, JavaScript and/or otherexecutable instructions, which cause the media access to be recorded byan audience measurement entity when the tag executes on a requestingmobile device.

Methods, apparatus and systems for tagging media in the manner describedabove are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,108,637, by Blumenau, entitled“Content Display Monitor,” which is hereby incorporated by reference inits entirety. Because a tag is embedded in the HTML defining a webpageand/or referenced by a pointer in the HTML of a webpage, the tag isexecuted whenever a web browser renders the corresponding media (e.g.,the webpage). Typically, a tag will cause the browser to send a request(sometimes referred to herein as a beacon) to a data collection facilitysuch as an audience measurement entity server that is associated withthe audience measurement entity. In some examples, the beacon is an HTTPrequest (e.g., an HTML GET request, an HTML POST request, etc.). Thebeacon enables monitoring data reflecting information about the mediaaccess to be tracked. To this end, the beacon carries identificationinformation to be collected, compiled and/or analyzed at the audiencemeasurement entity. The identification information may include a useragent string to identify the user device on which the media isrequested, a media identifier to identify the media with which the tagis associated (e.g., a website address), a host identifier to identifythe host (e.g., web server) with which the requested media is associated(e.g., a vendor identifier (VID)), a timestamp to identify thedates/times at which the media is requested, accessed and/or received,one or more command identifiers identifying control commands (e.g.,pause, play, stop, etc.) acted upon the media, etc.

Tags such as those described above may facilitate the collection ofcensus like data. In other words, because every (or nearly every)browser that accesses the tagged media will respond to the tag bysending the beacon (or communication) to the audience measuremententity, every (or nearly every) access to the online media (even tocached media using such tags) will be known by the audience measuremententity. Moreover, the collection of this data does not require the useof a special browser, or of special metering software, at the userdevices. Rather, because a beacon may appear to a conventionalcommercially available browser (e.g., Mozilla® Firefox®, Microsoft®Internet Explorer®, Google Chrome™ browser, etc.) as any other requestto retrieve Internet media (e.g., as a request to obtain content oradvertisement material to be displayed as part of the webpage) ortransmit data, any such browser will participate in the audiencemeasurement process without requiring modification. As a result, taggingenables collection of data from panelists and non-panelists alike.Therefore, data collected via a tagging approach such as that describedabove, is described herein as census data or census measurement data.Although examples disclosed herein are described in connection withbrowser-based interfaces used to present online media, disclosedtechniques may also be used in connection with non-browser basedapplications that render media such as service-specific applications(e.g., client applications to stream media).

It is useful, however, to link demographics and/or other userinformation to the census data. For example, companies and/orindividuals want to understand the reach and effectiveness of the media(e.g., content and/or advertisements) that they produce. For example,media that is associated with larger numbers of exposures and/or largernumbers of occurrences of an association may be considered moreeffective at influencing user behavior. Because census-based dataincludes users who are not panelists, panelist identifiers are notcollected and/or identified from such users. Some census based systemscollect impression data at the server level. Collecting information atthe server level enables an accurate measure of information served bythe monitored servers, but does not enable distinguishing mediaimpressions from panelists and non-panelists or exposure to cached media(e.g., content served once and accessed one or more subsequent timesfrom local memory). While servers may log an Internet Protocol (IP)address of a device that requested the information, IP addresses areprone to change (e.g., are dynamically assigned) and/or requests maycome through proxy servers that mask the identity of the originallyrequesting device. Thus, server logs do not typically uniquely identifythe requesting device and/or the user making the request.

To address this issue, audience measurement entities (sometimes referredto herein as “ratings entities”) traditionally determine online mediareach and frequency based on registered panel members. That is, anaudience measurement entity enrolls people that consent to beingmonitored into a panel. In such panelist-based systems, demographicinformation is obtained from a user when, for example, the user joinsand/or registers for the panel. The demographic information (e.g., race,age or age range, gender, income, home location, education level, etc.)may be obtained from the user, for example, via a telephone interview,an in-person interview, by having the user complete a survey (e.g., anonline survey), etc. In some examples, demographic information may becollected for a home. For example, demographic information for a panelhome may indicate age ranges of members in a panel home withoutidentifying the number of members in each of the age ranges. Thus, thegranularity of the demographic information may depend on whether thedemographic information is for a panelist or multiple individuals in apanel home. As used herein, the term “panelist” is generic to both apanelist and a panel home.

Companies such as The Nielsen Company (US), LLC utilize on-device metersto monitor usage of cellphones, tablets (e.g., iPads™) and/or othercomputing devices (e.g., PDAs, laptop computers, etc.). An on-devicemeter (ODM) is typically implemented by software that collects data ofinterest concerning usage of the monitored device. For example, the ODMmay collect data indicating media access activities (e.g., websitenames, dates/times of access, clickstream data and/or other mediaidentifying information (e.g., webpage content, advertisements, etc.))to which the panelist is exposed. This data is uploaded, periodically oraperiodically, to a data collection facility such as the audiencemeasurement entity server. The data collected by a meter is referred toherein as ODM data or panelist data. ODM data is advantageous in that itcan be linked to demographic information because the panelist hasprovided their demographics as part of the registration and the activitydata collected by the ODM can, thus, be associated with that demographicinformation via, for example, a panelist identifier included in the ODMdata transmitted to the audience measurement entity.

Typically, an entity such as The Nielsen Company (US), LLC that monitorsand/or reports the usage of online media (e.g., content, advertisementsor other types of media) operates as a neutral third party. That is, theaudience measurement entity does not provide content and/oradvertisements to end users. This un-involvement with the media ensuresthe neutral status of the audience measurement entity and, thus,enhances the trusted nature of the data it collects. Further, to ensurethat panel members remain unbiased in their media access, it isimportant to the audience measurement entity that the panel members arenot identified by other entities such as a content provider and/oradvertising entity. That is, to insure that the reports generated by theaudience measurement entity are not skewed by content providers and/oradvertising entities that may bias panelists, it is advantageous tocollect monitoring information in a manner that protects the anonymityof the panelist and does not include identifiers (e.g., a panelisttelephone number, a panelist social security number, a panelist name,etc.) that may be used to identify specific panelists.

Example methods, systems and apparatus disclosed herein may be used tocollect monitoring information at a census level, and then correlate thecensus measurement data with panel samples. Examples disclosed hereinfacilitate collecting monitoring information at a census level bytracking the monitoring information included in beacons that aretransmitted to the audience measurement entity server in response tomedia requests.

Example methods, systems and apparatus disclosed herein cause the beacontransmitted to the audience measurement entity server to include alocation identifier. The location identifier may then be used toassociate the corresponding monitoring information (e.g., mediaimpression) with a panelist. Examples disclosed herein accomplish thisby including device location information in the beacon that isassociated with the geographic location at which the media was requestedby the user device.

Examples disclosed herein facilitate comparing the device locationincluded in the monitoring information to reference locations associatedwith the panelists. Reference locations correspond to geographiclocations for a panelist home. For example, the reference locations maybe global positioning system (GPS) coordinates. In some examples, areference location may be obtained when a user joins and/or registersfor a panel. For example, the reference location may be obtained by atechnician who visits the home of the panelist to install meteringequipment at the panelist home. For example, the technician may use apositioning system (e.g., a GPS wide area augmentation system (WAAS)enabled receiver) to obtain, for example, GPS coordinates for thepanelist home. In some examples, the metering equipment may include apositioning system and/or include a wired and/or wireless networkinterface to receive location data from a nearby positioning systemand/or transmit location data to user devices within the panelist home.In some such examples, the metering equipment may periodically and/oraperiodically transmit location data to the audience measurement entityserver. In addition, when the metering equipment includes a positioningsystem, the audience measurement entity may identify when the meteringequipment is moved to a new location (e.g., outside the panelist home)based on a change in the location data received from the meteringequipment.

When comparing the device location to reference locations, examplesdisclosed herein determine the distance between the device location anda reference location stored at the audience measurement entity. If thedistance between the locations is less than a threshold, the user isconsidered to be requesting media from within the panelist home, and,based on this conclusion, examples disclosed herein proceed to associatethe census data with a panelist identifier. The panelist identifier maythen be used to associate demographic information to the monitoringinformation. For example, the age of a panelist may be used to determinean age range of viewers likely to watch a television show. In theillustrated examples, when the beacon is sent to the audiencemeasurement entity server in response to rendering tagged media, thebeacon includes the location identifier (e.g., the device location), andthe impression entry logged at the audience measurement entity serverincludes the location identifier.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an example environment 100 in whichexamples disclosed herein may be implemented to correlate censusmeasurement data with panel data. The example environment 100 of FIG. 1includes an audience measurement entity (AME) server 102, a mediahosting server 104 and a client device 106. In some examples, the AMEserver 102 is implemented using multiple devices and/or the mediahosting server 104 is implemented using multiple devices. For example,the AME server 102 and/or the media hosting server 104 may include diskarrays or multiple workstations (e.g., desktop computers, workstationservers, laptops, etc.) in communication with one another. In theillustrated example, the AME server 102 is in selective communicationwith the media hosting server 104 and/or the client device 106 via oneor more wired and/or wireless networks represented by network 108.Example network 108 may be implemented using any suitable wired and/orwireless network(s) including, for example, one or more data buses, oneor more Local Area Networks (LANs), one or more wireless LANs, one ormore cellular networks, the Internet, etc. As used herein, the phrase“in communication,” including variances thereof, encompasses directcommunication and/or indirect communication through one or moreintermediary components and does not require direct physical (e.g.,wired) communication and/or constant communication, but ratheradditionally includes selective communication at periodic or aperiodicintervals, as well as one-time events.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, an audience measurement entityoperates and/or hosts the example AME server 102. The AME of theillustrated example is an entity that monitors and/or reports access totagged media. The AME server 102 of the illustrated example is a serverand/or database that collects and/or receives monitoring informationrelated to tagged media (e.g., media having inserted or embeddedexecutable instructions that causes the media view (e.g., impression) tobe recorded by, for example, the AME server 102). The AME of theillustrated example is a neutral entity that is not involved with thedistributing of media.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, a media provider operates and/orhosts the media hosting server 104 that responds to requests for mediathat may include tags. For example, the media provider may engage theAME to collect and/or monitor information related to media associatedwith the media provider. Such a media provider may wish to use taggedmedia in a media campaign to determine the effectiveness of the mediacampaign. In some examples, the information returned in response to therequest for media includes an instruction (e.g., tag) to inform the AMEserver 102 of the accessing of tagged media. In some examples, theinformation returned in response to the request for media includes areference to a tag and/or executable monitoring instructions. Forexample, the tag and/or executable monitoring instructions may be hostedat the AME server 102, which enables the AME to directly control thecontent of the tag and/or executable monitoring instructions. In someexamples, the tag and/or executable monitoring instructions are hostedat the media hosting server 104. By including a reference to a tagand/or executable monitoring instructions in the media, the content ofthe tag (e.g., executable monitoring instructions) may be changed at anytime without modifying the media. For example, the tag and/or executablemonitoring instructions may be updated to improve efficiency ofcollecting information for tagged media by updating the executableinstructions hosted at the AME server 102 and/or the media hostingserver 104. As shown above, the tag may reside wholly in the media ormay be distributed between the media and the AME server and/or thehosting server. Tagged media may, thus, include an executable monitoringinstruction that serves as a tag or a reference to monitoringinstructions stored at an external location such as a server. In thelater case, the reference may be considered a first tag or portion of atag and the external instruction may be considered a second tag or aportion of a tag. In some examples, the media hosting server 104 isoperated and/or hosted by a third party. In addition, for simplicity,only one media hosting server 104 is shown in FIG. 1, although multiplemedia hosting servers are likely to be present.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, the client device 106 is asmartphone (e.g., an Apple® iPhone®, a Motorola™ Moto X™, a Nexus 5, anAndroid™ platform device, etc.). However, any other type of device mayadditionally or alternatively be used such as, for example, a tablet(e.g., an Apple® iPad™, a Motorola™ Xoom™, etc.), a laptop computer, adesktop computer, a camera, an Internet compatible television, a smartTV, etc. The client device 106 of FIG. 1 (sometimes referred to hereinas a “user device” or “mobile device”) is used to access (e.g., request,receive, render and/or present) online media that is tagged and returnedby the media hosting server 104. For example, the user may execute a webbrowser on the client device 106 to request streaming media (e.g., viaan HTTP request) from the media hosting server 104. In response toaccessing the tagged media, media impression information, includingdevice location information, is sent to the AME server 102.

As discussed above, a media provider may engage the AME to collectand/or monitor information related to media associated with the mediaprovider. For example, the media provider may want to compare theperformances of three distinct pieces of media (e.g., media A, B, and C)to one another and/or to other media and/or to an expected or desiredperformance (e.g., reach and/or frequency) of the three pieces of media(e.g., media A, B and C). In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, the AMEserver 102 includes an example tag handler 110 to facilitate taggingmedia A, B and C to enable the AME server 102 to track when media isrequested by, for example, the client device 106. In the illustratedexample, the tag handler 110 of FIG. 1 provides tags and/or referencesto tags to the media hosting server 104 for inserting into media. Forexample, the tag handler 110 may provide the media hosting server 104 anexample tag A to include (e.g., insert, embed, etc.) in the media A, atag B to include in the media B, and a tag C to include in the media C.As discussed above, a tag may be a reference to monitoring instructionssuch that the reference, but not the instructions are embedded in themedia. Alternatively, the tag may be the executable monitoringinstructions and may be located directly in the media and/or at anexternal location accessible to the media.

In the illustrated example, the tag handler 110 generates a tag that islater included in media hosted by the media hosting server 104. Based onthe preferences of the media provider and or the AME, the tag handler110 generates a tag that achieves the goals of the media provider and/orthe AME. The tag handler 110 generates tags that enable the AME server102 to collect and/or receive monitoring information related to thetagged media (e.g., media A, B and C). In some examples, the generatedtags are then stored in a data structure such as a lookup table, andused by the tag handler 110 to facilitate tagging media.

In some examples, the tag handler 110 generates the tags A, B, C andinstructs the media hosting server 104 to include the tags A, B, C intothe corresponding media A, B, C. In other examples, the tag handler 110generates the tags A, B C and embeds the tags A, B, C into thecorresponding media A, B, C and then provides the tagged media (e.g.,the media A including tag A, the media B including tag B, the media Cincluding tag C) to the media hosting server 104. In some examples, thetag handler 110 generates the tags A, B, C and instructs the mediahosting server 104 to include references to the tags A, B, C in thecorresponding media A, B, C. For example, the media hosting server 104may embed a tag A reference into the media A, a tag B reference into themedia B, and a tag C reference into the media C. The tag references (A,B, C) may then be used to request the corresponding tag (A, B, C). Forexample, when the media A including the tag A reference is accessed atthe client device 106, the client device 106 may also send a request forthe tag A using the tag A reference. In some such examples, the taghandler 110 generates the tags (e.g., tags A, B, C) and the tagreferences (e.g., references to the tags A, B, C) and provides the tagreferences (e.g., references to the tags A, B, C) to the media hostingserver 104 to insert into the corresponding media (e.g., media A, B, C)while the tag handler 110 stores the tags (e.g., tags A, B, C). Thus,when the client device 106 accesses the media including the tagreference, the client device 106 uses the tag reference to request thecorresponding tag from the tag handler 110. In other examples, the taghandler 110 provides the tags A, B, C and the tag references (e.g.,references to the tags A, B, C) to the media hosting server 104. In someexamples, the tag handler 110 generates the tags A, B, C and provides tothe media hosting server 104 the tags A, B, C to include in thecorresponding media A, B, C and instructions to generate references tothe tags A, B, C. For example, the media hosting server 104 may host themedia to be tracked (e.g., media A, B, C), the tags A, B, C, generatereferences to the tags A, B, C, and embed the references A, B, C intothe corresponding media A, B, C. In some examples, when the clientdevice 106 accesses the media including the tag reference, the clientdevice 106 requests the corresponding tag from the media hosting server104. Thus, for example, when executable instructions of a tag need to beupdated (e.g., replaced with executable instructions that improveefficiency in collecting media monitoring information), neither themedia nor the reference to the tag included in the media needs to bemodified. Rather, the tag handler 110 enables modifying only the tag onthe server side (e.g., the instructions referenced by the tag includedin the media).

FIG. 2 is a diagram of an example message path illustrating metering oftagged media. In the illustrated example of FIG. 2, the example clientdevice 106 transmits a media request 202 for media to the example mediahosting server 104 via a browser 200. In some examples, the mediarequest 202 includes a user agent identifying characteristics of thebrowser 200 and/or the client device 106 such as a browser identifier, adevice identifier, etc. The media hosting server 104 of the illustratedexample includes media (e.g., a website, an image, a video, etc.) that,when requested by the browser 200, causes the media hosting server 104to respond with media 204 including a tag 206. The tagged media 204 ofthe illustrated example includes executable instructions such as anapplet (e.g., the tag 206) that, when executed by the browser 200, causethe browser 200 to send a communication (or beacon) including monitoringinformation (e.g., census measurement data) to the AME server 102. Thetag 206 may be included in the requested media in accordance with theteachings of Blumenau, U.S. Pat. No. 6,108,637. Accordingly, the browser200 transmits an example beacon 210 to the AME server 102. In some suchexamples, the beacon 210 is a “dummy request” in that it is not actuallyintended to return data. Instead, the beacon 210 is used to carrymonitoring information to the AME server 102. In some examples, thebeacon 210 is implemented as an HTTP POST message, an HTTP GET message,or similar message used in present and/or future HTTP protocols. In theillustrated example, the beacon 210 includes a location identifier 212(e.g., data specifying a device location corresponding to the geographiclocation at which the media was accessed), a media identifier 214 (e.g.,data specifying the media 204) and a timestamp 216 corresponding to thedate and/or time for when the media was accessed (e.g., data specifyingwhen the media 204 was received).

In the illustrated example of FIG. 2, the client device 106 includes thepositioning system 208 to enable identification of the geographiclocation of the client device 106. The positioning system 208 of theillustrated example is implemented by a global positioning system (GPS).In some examples, the positioning system 208 uses the Wide AreaAugmentation System (WAAS) and may accurately determine the location ofthe client device 106 between three and five feet. In some examples, thepositioning system 208 determines the geographic location (e.g., GPScoordinates) based on signals received from satellites representative ofthe positions of the satellites in relation to the location of theclient device 106. However, in some other examples, the positioningsystem 208 determines location based on positions of cellular radiotowers in relation to the location of the client device 106 (e.g., usinga triangulation method). However, any other past, present and/or futuremethod for determining the device location of the client device 106(e.g., cellular tower triangulation, Wi-Fi data, GPS data sent fromanother device using a wired and/or wireless network interface such asBluetooth®, etc.) may be used by the client device 106 to providelocation information of the client device 106 when accessing therequested media.

The AME server 102 of the illustrated example records that a request(e.g., the beacon 210) was received and also records any data containedin the beacon 210 (e.g., the location identifier 212, the mediaidentifier 214, the timestamp 216, a cookie, etc.). The AME server 102,in some examples, responds to the request with an acknowledgementmessage. In some examples, the acknowledgement message requests and/orsets a cookie in the client device 106 to, for example, enableidentification of subsequent beacons from the same client device.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of another example message path illustratingmetering of tagged media. In the illustrated example of FIG. 3, examplemetering equipment 302 is installed in a panelist home. The examplemetering equipment 302 of the illustrated example includes a meterpositioning system 304 that is implemented by a global positioningsystem such as a GPS WAAS enabled receiver. In the illustrated example,the meter positioning system 304 determines the geographic location 308Aof the metering equipment 302 based on signals (e.g., clock signals)received from three or more GPS satellites 306 representative of thepositions of the satellites in relation to the location of the meterpositioning system 304. The example metering equipment 302 mayperiodically and/or aperiodically transmit geographic location data308A, 308B obtained and/or derived by the meter positioning system 304from signals received from the GPS satellites 306 to the AME server 102.In the example of FIG. 3, the geographic location data 308A, 308B arethe same geographic location data at two different points in time.Geographic location data 308A is the geographic location data whenprovided by the GPS satellites 306 to the meter positioning system 304.Geographic location data 308B is the geographic location data whenprovided by the metering equipment 302 to the AME server 102. Theexample AME server 102 of the illustrated example of FIG. 1 stores thegeographic location data 308B as reference location data 308B for thecorresponding panelist in a panelists log.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 3, the media hosting server 104responds to media requests by client devices 106, 107 with tagged media.In the illustrated example, the example media hosting server 104 sendsto the client device 106 media including a tag 310, and sends to theclient device 107 media including a tag 311. As described above, thetags 310, 311 are executable instructions (e.g., an applet) that causemedia monitoring information to be sent to the AME 102. In someexamples, the tags are links to such executable instructions.

More specifically, in response to presenting the requested mediaincluding the tag 310, the client device 106 executes the executableinstructions (e.g., the tag 310), which causes the client device 106 tosend a beacon 312 to the AME server 102. In addition, executing the tag310 causes the client device 106 to identify a geographic location ofthe client device 106. In the illustrated example, the positioningsystem 208 of the client device 106 enables identification of the devicelocation of the client device 106. In the illustrated example, theclient device 106 obtains device location data 314 (e.g., GPScoordinates) from the positioning system 208 based on signals receivedfrom the GPS satellites 306. The example client device 106 of FIG. 3then transmits the device location data 314 as a location identifier tothe AME server 102 in the beacon 312.

In a similar manner, in response to presenting the requested mediaincluding the tag 311, the client device 107 executes the tag 311, whichcauses the client device 107 to send a beacon 313 to the AME server 102.In addition, executing the executable instructions 311 causes the clientdevice 107 to identify a geographic location of the client device 107.In the illustrated example of FIG. 3, the client device 107 does notinclude a positioning system, but may receive location information froma proximate device. In the illustrated example, the metering equipment302 broadcasts geographic location information 315 that may be receivedby nearby devices. For example, the metering equipment 302 of theillustrated example broadcasts the geographic location information 315via a Bluetooth® interface. In some such examples, if the client device107 also includes a Bluetooth interface, the client device 107 receivesthe geographic location information 315 from the metering equipment 302and transmits the geographic location information 315 to the AME 102 asa location identifier in the beacon 313.

In some examples, a client device transmitting a beacon to the AMEserver 102 may not include a positioning system and/or a geographiclocation information receiving interface (e.g., a Bluetooth interface)and/or the application requesting the media (e.g., the browser 200) maynot have access to the positioning system of the client device. In somesuch examples, the client device transmits the beacon to the AME server102 without a location identifier. When processing a beacon without alocation identifier, the AME server 102 marks the monitoring informationincluded in the beacon as census data.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 3, to determine whether to correlatemonitoring information included in a beacon to a registered panelist,the AME server 102 compares the device location included in the locationidentifier to reference locations associated with registered panelists.For example, if the device location is within a threshold distance of areference location, the panelist identifier corresponding to thereference location may be associated with the monitoring informationcorresponding to the location identifier received with the beacon.Otherwise, the monitoring information is marked as census data.

In some examples, the AME server 102 compares device locations toreference areas associated with the registered panelists. The associatedreference area of a panelist corresponds to a geographic area around areference location. In some examples, the reference area varies based onknown information about the panelist home (or other location (e.g., job,favorite hangouts, etc.)) and the corresponding reference location. Insome examples, reference locations (e.g., job, favorite hangouts, etc.)are determined by collecting geographical locations from a portablemeter and/or a computing device (e.g., cellphone, tablet, PDA, laptopcomputer, etc.) including an on-device meter (ODM) (e.g., an ODMutilized by The Nielsen Company (US), LLC) carried by a registeredpanelist. In some examples, the size of a reference area depends onwhether the panelist home is an apartment, a house, etc., and the siteof the geographic area surrounding the reference location depends on thelocation of the metering equipment in the panelist home. For example, ifthe metering equipment 302 is known to be located against an exteriorwall of the panelist home, reference area 316 may be positioned aroundthe reference location data 308B so that the reference location data308B is near an edge of the reference area 316 rather than in the centerof the reference area 316. Further, although the reference area 316 isrepresented as an ellipse in the illustrated example, the reference area316 may be another shape such as a circle, a hexagon, or any othersuitable shape.

In the illustrated example, the example AME server 102 uses referencelocations associated with registered panelists to compare to the devicelocations included in beacons received from client devices to determinewhether to associate the corresponding monitoring information with aregistered panelist. For example, the AME server 102 of the illustratedexample determines whether the device locations data 314, 315 includedin the corresponding beacons 312, 313 are within the reference area 316.If a device location is within the reference area associated with aregistered panelist, the AME server 102 associates the monitoringinformation from the corresponding beacon with the correspondingregistered panelist. For example, monitoring information included in thebeacon 313 may be correlated with a panelist associated with thereference location data 308B because the AME server 102 determines thatthe device location 315 is within the reference area 316 correspondingto that panelist. In contrast, if the device location is not within thereference area associated with a registered panelist, the AME server 102marks the corresponding monitoring information as census data. Forexample, the AME server 102 of the illustrated example marks themonitoring information included in the beacon 312 as census data becausethe device location data 314 is not within the reference area 316.

FIG. 3A is an illustration of an example environment 340 in whichexamples disclosed herein may be implemented to correlate censusmeasurement data with panel data. The example environment 340 of theillustrated example includes an example household 350 (e.g., a house)located within an example yard 352 and an example household 360A, 360B(e.g., duplex apartments) located within an example yard 362. In theillustrated example of FIG. 3A, members of the household 350 and membersof the household 360B are panelists who have consented to beingmonitored (e.g., included in a panel), and have provided demographicsinformation, either about the household (e.g., the household 350 is apanelist home) or about individual members of the household (e.g., thehousehold 350 includes panelists 1, 2, and 3). The member(s) of thehousehold 360A of the illustrated example have not consented to beingpanelists, and thus, demographics information for those members is notknown.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 3A, the example household 350 isassociated with a reference location 354. The reference location 354 maybe collected via a meter including a positioning system such as a GPSenabled device (e.g., the example meter 302 of FIG. 3), from a deviceincluding a positioning system that is proximate to a meter in thehousehold 350, by a technician using a positioning system who visitedthe household 350, etc. In the illustrated example of FIG. 3A, theexample household 350 is also associated with a reference area 356. Theexample reference area 356 of FIG. 3A is an approximation of the area ofthe household 350 in which a member of the household 350 may requestand/or access media (e.g., via the example client device 106 of FIGS.1-3). In the illustrated example, the reference area 356 is determinedusing an example radius 355.

In a similar manner, the example household 360B of FIG. 3A is associatedwith a reference location 364, which may be collected via, for example,a meter including a positioning system (e.g., a GPS enabled device),from a device including a positioning system that is proximate to ameter in the household 360B, by a technician using a positioning systemwho visited the household 360B, etc. In the illustrated example of FIG.3A, the example household 360B is associated with a reference area 366.The example reference area 366 is an approximation of the area of thehousehold 360B in which a member of the household 360B may requestand/or access media (e.g., via the example client device 106). In theillustrated example, the reference area 356 is determined using anexample radius 365.

As described above, the area of a reference area may vary based on knowninformation about the associated household. For example, the AME server102 may vary the radius 355, 365 used to determine the reference areas356, 366 based on the household type. For example, as the household 350is known to be a house, the example AME server 102 may assume that thehousehold 350 is located within the yard 352, and, based on thisconclusion, the AME server 102 may use a radius 355 that extends beyondthe perimeter of the physical structure of the household 350 (e.g.,beyond the walls) without the reference area 356 overlapping withanother household. Thus, when the AME server 102 receives a beaconincluding device location information positioned within the referencearea 356, the AME server 102 associates the corresponding monitoringinformation with the demographic information associated with thehousehold 350.

In contrast, the household 360B is known to be a duplex apartment, andthe example AME server 102 can use this information to determine thatthe household 360B likely shares a wall with another household (e.g.,the household 360A). For some purposes, the AME server 102 uses theradius 365, which is less than the radius 355 and does not extend beyondthe walls of the household 360B, thereby reducing the probability of thereference area 366 overlapping with another household. As a result,device location information positioned within the reference area 366 canbe correctly credited to the household 360B and not erroneously creditedto a neighbor.

Although the reference areas 356, 366 of FIG. 3A are determined using aradius, many other methods of determining the reference area arepossible. For example, two or more GPS coordinates may be used tocalculate a reference area that is a rectangle, a hexagon, etc.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an example implementation of the AME server102 of FIGS. 1-3. The example AME server 102 of the illustrated exampleincludes the example tag handler 110, an example beacon handler 402, anexample beacon parser 404, an example decrypter 406, an example taggedimpression logger 408, an example location handler 410, an exampledistance calculator 412, an example comparator 414, an example panelistassociator 416, an example data storer 418, an example data store 420,an example reporter 422 and an example time stamper 424. As discussedabove, the AME server 102 includes the example tag handler 110 tofacilitate tagging media. For example, the tag handler 110 may instructthe media hosting server 104 to insert the tag 206 (which may be areference to an external tag) into the media 204. For example, the taghandler 110 may provide the media hosting server 104 executableinstructions (e.g., the tag 206, an applet, etc.) to embed into themedia 204. In some examples, the tag handler 110 instructs the mediahosting server 104 to insert a reference to the tag 206 into the media204 and the tag is hosted outside the media. In some such examples, whenthe client device 106 accesses the media 204, the client device 106 alsosends a request for the tag 206 using the reference. In the illustratedexample, when the tag handler 110 instructs the media hosting server 104to insert a reference to the tag 206, the tag 206 may be hosted at themedia hosting server 104 and/or at the AME server 102.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 4, the AME server 102 includes theexample beacon handler 402 to facilitate communication with clientdevices (e.g., the client device 106 of FIGS. 1-3). For example, thebeacon handler 402 may receive dummy requests (e.g., beacons) from theclient device 106 executing the executable instructions (e.g., the tag206). In some examples, the beacon handler 402 receives the beacon 210from the browser 200 of FIG. 2. In some examples, the beacon handler 402sends an acknowledgement response to the browser 200 in response toreceiving the beacon 210. In other examples, no response is provided.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 4, the AME server 102 includes theexample beacon parser 404 to extract location information included inthe beacon 210. For example, the beacon parser 404 may identify thelocation identifier 212 of FIG. 2. In some examples, the beacon parser404 may identify a user agent identifying the browser 200 and/or theclient device 106. For example, the user agent may include a networkaddress, a media access control (MAC) address, a telephone number, etc.associated with the client device 106. In some examples, the beaconparser 404 may identify a media identifier identifying the media thatwas received in the media response 206 of FIG. 2 (e.g., the mediaidentifier 214 (FIG. 2)). In some examples, the beacon parser 404 mayidentify and/or set a cookie enabling identification of subsequentbeacons from the same client device. In some examples, the beacon parser404 may be unable to identify a location identifier in the beacon 210.For example, when the beacon 210 is sent from a client device that doesnot include a positioning system and/or does not have access to apositioning system, the beacon 210 will not have the locationidentifier.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 4, the AME server 102 includes theexample decrypter 406 to decrypt information in the beacon 210. Forexample, information included in the beacon 210 may be encrypted. Forexample, the executable tag 206 may cause the browser 200 to encrypt thedevice location information and/or the monitoring information prior toincluding the location identifier 212 in the beacon 210. In this manner,personal data such as precise location data that may identify where auser is accessing media is protected. In some such examples, thedecrypter 406 may be used to decrypt the information included in thebeacon 210 prior to the beacon parsing 404 parsing the beacon 210.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 4, the AME server 102 includes theexample tagged impression logger 408 to credit (or log) impressions tomedia based on the monitoring information included in the beacon 210.For example, the tagged impression logger 408 may list the correspondingmedia (e.g., via one or more media identifiers) in a data structure. Insome examples, the tagged impression logger 408 appends and/or prependsadditional information crediting the identified media with an exposure.For example, the tagged impression logger 408 may identify a mediasource from which the media was received (e.g., a vendor identifier, aURL, etc.), a network address of the client device 106 and/or anidentifier of the client device 106 (e.g., an international mobileequipment identity (IMEI) number, a cookie, a MAC address, etc.). Inaddition, the tagged impression logger 408 may append a timestamp fromthe example time stamper 424 indicating the date and/or time when thebeacon 210 was received by the AME server 102. This timestamp may be inaddition to a timestamp applied at the client device to identify themedia access time.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 4, the AME server 102 includes theexample location handler 410 to determine reference locations to whichto compare to the device location extracted from the beacon 210. Asdescribed above, a reference location corresponds to a geographiclocation of a panelist home. In the illustrated example, the referencelocations are stored in the data store 420 along with a panelistidentifier and/or additional panelist information associated with apanelist. For example, the panelist information may include demographicinformation (e.g., gender, age group, race, income, level of education,etc.) collected from a user when the user joins or registers for thepanel.

The location handler 410 of the illustrated example of FIG. 4 uses adata structure (e.g., a lookup table) stored in the example data store420 to identify reference locations associated with the registeredpanelists. A registered panelist may be associated with one or morereference locations and/or reference areas (e.g., a house area, a workarea, a vacation home area, etc.). In some examples, the locationhandler 410 filters reference locations based on the extracted devicelocation. For example, the location handler 410 may parse the referencelocations stored in the data store 420 and identify the referencelocations that have the same (or nearly the same) longitude coordinatesor latitude coordinates of the device location specified in the beacon.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 4, the AME server 102 includes theexample distance calculator 412 to calculate the distance between adevice location extracted from a beacon by the beacon parser 404 and oneor more reference location(s) obtained from the location handler 410.For example, the distance calculator 412 may use anydistance-calculating algorithm to determine the distance between the twolocations.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 4, the AME server 102 includes theexample comparator 414 to compare the distance calculated by the exampledistance calculator 412 to a threshold. The example comparator 414 ofthe example of FIG. 4 outputs a message indicating whether to associatethe corresponding monitoring information with a panelist based on thecomparison based on whether the threshold is satisfied (e.g., thecalculated distance is within the threshold).

In some examples, the comparator 414 compares the extracted devicelocation to a reference area based on a reference location. In someexamples, the attributes of the reference area (e.g., size, geographicarea, center, shape, etc.) are selected based on panelist informationsuch that different reference areas have different attributes. Forexample, if a first reference location corresponds to an apartment unitand a second reference location corresponds to a ranch-style house, theexample comparator 414 may determine a reference area surrounding thefirst reference location that is smaller than a reference areasurrounding the second reference location to ensure the first referencearea does not extend into a third party's living space. The examplecomparator 414 determines whether the device location is within thereference area (e.g., within a radius as discussed in connection withFIG. 3A) in order to decide whether to credit the media exposure to thecorresponding panelist or label the exposure as census data.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 4, the AME server 102 includes theexample panelist associator 416 to associate monitoring informationextracted by the beacon parser 404 with a panelist. In the illustratedexample, when the comparator 414 determines that the distance between adevice location and a reference location is less than a thresholddistance and/or that the device location is within a reference areaincluding a corresponding reference location, the example panelistassociator 416 associates the monitoring information (e.g., the mediaexposure) included in the beacon 210 with a registered panelist. Forexample, the panelist associator 416 may use a lookup table to determinea panelist identifier corresponding to the reference location. However,other methods to determine the registered panelist may additionally oralternatively be used. In some examples, the panelist associator 416appends additional panelist information to the corresponding mediaimpression logged by the tagged impression logger 412. For instance, inthe example of FIG. 4, the panelist associator 416 appends demographicinformation to the tagged impression logger.

In some examples, the panelist associator 416 may be unable to associatemonitoring data with a registered panelist. For example, the comparator414 may output a message indicating that the corresponding devicelocation was not within the threshold distance of the referencelocations in the panel. In some other examples, the beacon parser 404may not provide a device location. In some such examples, the panelistassociator 416 attributes this to a non-panelist media impression andassociates the monitoring information included in the beacon 210 ascensus data. In the illustrated example, the panelist associator 416appends a label indicating that the corresponding media impressionlogged by the tagged impression logger 408 is census data.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 4, the example data storer 418 storesmonitoring information received from the beacon parser 404, the mediaimpression logged by the tagged impression logger 408 and/or panelistidentifying information received from the panelist associator 416.

The example data store 420 of FIG. 4 may be implemented by any storagedevice and/or storage disc for storing data such as, for example, flashmemory, magnetic media, optical media, etc. Furthermore, the data storedin the data store 420 may be in any data format such as, for example,binary data, comma delimited data, tab delimited data, structured querylanguage (SQL) structures, etc. While in the illustrated example thedata store 420 is illustrated as a single database, the data store 420may be implemented by any number and/or type(s) of databases.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 4, the reporter 422 generates reportsbased on the collected monitoring information. In some examples, thereports are presented to the media provider(s) and/or other entities.The reports may identify different aspects of media usage such as, forexample, how many impressions the media received and demographicsassociated with those impressions.

The example time stamper 424 of FIG. 4 includes a clock and a calendar.The example time stamper 424 associates a time period (e.g., 1:00 a.m.Central Standard Time (CST) to 1:01 a.m. (CST) and a date (e.g., Jan. 1,2013) with each generated tagged impression entry from the taggedimpression logger 408 by, for example, appending the period of time andthe date information to an end of the data in the impression entry,including the media impressions identified as census data by thepanelist associator 416.

While an example manner of implementing the AME server 102 of FIGS. 1-3is illustrated in FIG. 4, one or more of the elements, processes and/ordevices illustrated in FIG. 4 may be combined, divided, re-arranged,omitted, eliminated and/or implemented in any other way. Further, theexample media hosting server 104, the example client device 106, theexample client device 107, the example tag handler 110, the examplebeacon handler 402, the example beacon parser 404, the example taggedimpression logger 408, the example location handler 410, the exampledistance calculator 412, the example comparator 414, the examplepanelist associator 416, the example data storer 418, the example datastore 420, the example reporter 422, the example time stamper 424and/or, more generally, the example AME server 102 of FIGS. 1-3 may beimplemented by hardware, software, firmware and/or any combination ofhardware, software and/or firmware. Thus, for example, any of theexample media hosting server 104, the example client device 106, theexample client device 107, the example tag handler 110, the examplebeacon handler 402, the example beacon parser 404, the example taggedimpression logger 408, the example location handler 410, the exampledistance calculator 412, the example comparator 414, the examplepanelist associator 416, the example data storer 418, the example datastore 420, the example reporter 422, the example time stamper 424and/or, more generally, the example AME server 102 could be implementedby one or more analog or digital circuit(s), logic circuits,programmable processor(s), application specific integrated circuit(s)(ASIC(s)), programmable logic device(s) (PLD(s)) and/or fieldprogrammable logic device(s) (FPLD(s)). When reading any of theapparatus or system claims of this patent to cover a purely softwareand/or firmware implementation, at least one of the example mediahosting server 104, the example client device 106, the example clientdevice 107, the example tag handler 110, the example beacon handler 402,the example beacon parser 404, the example tagged impression logger 408,the example location handler 410, the example distance calculator 412,the example comparator 414, the example panelist associator 416, theexample data storer 418, the example data store 420, the examplereporter 422 and/or the example time stamper 424 is/are hereby expresslydefined to include a tangible computer readable storage device orstorage disk such as a memory, a digital versatile disk (DVD), a compactdisk (CD), a Blu-ray disk, etc. storing the software and/or firmware.Further still, the example AME server 102 of FIGS. 1-3 may include oneor more elements, processes and/or devices in addition to, or insteadof, those illustrated in FIG. 4, and/or may include more than one of anyor all of the illustrated elements, processes and devices.

FIG. 5 is an example data table 500 storing data representing taggedmedia impressions that may be collected by the example AME server 102 ofFIGS. 1-4. In the illustrated example of FIG. 5, the data table 500identifies a requested website 502, a device location 504, a timestampfrom the client device of the request 506 and a possible panel data flag508 indicating whether an impression is panel data or is census data. Inthe illustrated example, the AME server 102 extracts the device locationfrom the location identifier 212 of the beacon 210 when the locationidentifier is present. For example, the impression entry 510 indicatesthat a user requested the website (Host1.com) at 9:15:00 AM on Nov. 10,2013, from a device location with GPS coordinates (41.87989,−87.637158). Further, since the impression entry 510 includes a devicelocation, the impression entry 510 is flagged as possible panel data,depending on whether the device location satisfies a threshold (e.g.,the calculated distance between the device location and a referencelocation is within the threshold) and/or the device location ispositioned within a reference area. In contrast, in the impression entry512, the user who accessed the website (Host2.com) at 9:45:05 AM on Nov.10, 2013, did so with a client device that did not provide devicelocation information for the client device when it provided the beacon.As a result, the impression entry 512 is flagged as census data (e.g.,not possible panel data). In some examples, the data table 500 mayinclude additional information such as device identifiers (e.g., atelephone number of the client device, a media access control (MAC)address of the client device, a serial number of the client device,etc.), a vendor identifier (e.g., the person/entity to which the website502 is registered), a browser identifier, a control action identifier(e.g., a control action such as play, stop, pause, etc. that triggers amedia request), a cookie, etc.

FIG. 6 is an example data table 600 that may be stored by the exampleAME server 102 of FIGS. 1-4 to facilitate associating monitoringinformation with panelist information. In the illustrated example ofFIG. 6, the data table 600 associates a panelist identifier 602 with areference type 603 (e.g., a house, an apartment, an office building,etc.) and a reference location 604. For example, in row 616, thepanelist identifier (10001) is associated with the reference locationprovided by the GPS coordinates (41.87989, −87.637158). Further, in row616, the reference location 604 corresponds to a duplex apartment. Asdiscussed above, the reference location 604 may be obtained by, forexample, a technician visiting a panelist home, metering equipmentincluded in the panelist home and/or metering hardware (e.g., a portablemeter) or software (e.g., an on-device meter included in a monitoreddevice) that is in possession of the panelist. In addition, the exampledata table 600 includes a reference area 605 that corresponds to thereference type 603. For example, the radius may vary based on whetherthe reference type is a house, an apartment, a gym, etc. Further, theexample data table 600 includes demographic information associated withthe registered panelists. For example, the data table 600 of FIG. 6includes a gender identifier 606, an age range 608, a city of residence610 and a relationship status 612 for the panelists included in the datatable 600. Thus, for example, in row 620, a registered panelist with thepanelist identifier (10003) is associated with the reference locationprovided by GPS coordinates (39.739166, −104.984720), and is also afemale between the ages of 18 and 34, who lives in Denver, Colo., and issingle. In some examples, a panelist is associated with two or morereference locations. In some such examples, the different referencelocations may correspond to known locations where the panelists accessesmedia. For example, in row 620, the reference location 604 is associatedwith an apartment the panelist may live at; in row 622, the referencelocation 604 is associated with a gym the panelist frequents; and, inrow 624, the reference location 604 is associated with a vacation homethat the panelists owns. In this manner, correlating census data withpanel data is not limited to a single location. Rather, census datacollected at different locations may be correlated with the same paneldata. In some examples, the data table 600 may include additionalinformation associated with the reference location such as the type ofresidence (e.g., an apartment unit, a house, etc.), whether the meteringequipment is located near an external wall, etc. In some examples, thedata table 600 may include more demographic information associated withthe registered panelists such as, for example, race, income, level ofeducation completed, occupation, etc. By using geographic locations forthe tagged media system and the panelists log, user privacy of thepanelist is protected. For example, personally-identifying informationis not revealed while transmitting information (e.g., the monitoringinformation) to the AME server 102 and/or the client device 106.Further, in some examples, the location identifiers, the monitoringinformation and/or the beacon 210 may be encrypted for increasedprivacy.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example data table 700 representing correlatedmedia impressions collected by the AME server 102 of FIGS. 1-4. In theillustrated example of FIG. 7, the data table 700 is an aggregated tableincluding the tagged media impressions from the example data table 500and panelist information from the example data table 600. For example,row 720 of FIG. 7 corresponds to row 510 of FIG. 5. In the illustratedexample, the example data table 700 identifies whether the impressionwas credited as census or panelist data 702 (e.g., whether themonitoring information corresponds to activity of a panelist or anon-panelist), a panelist identifier 704 (if applicable), a requestedwebsite 706, a device location 708, a timestamp of the media request710. The example data table 700 also identifies demographic informationretrieved from the example data table 600 (e.g., city of residence 712).

The panelist identifier column 704 of the illustrated example of FIG. 7corresponds to an identifier for a registered panelist. For example,when the AME server 102 determines that monitoring information extractedfrom a beacon may be correlated to a registered panelist, the AME server102 may use the data table 600 of FIG. 6 and append the correspondingpanelist identifier to the corresponding impression entry in the datatable 700. In some examples, when a panelist is identified, the AMEserver 102 may append additional demographic information from the datatable 600 to the impression entry. For example, the AME server 102 mayappend the gender, age range, relationship status, etc. of the panelistto the corresponding impression entry in the data table 700.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 7, identifying whether the exposurewas monitored via census data or panelist data 702 may be beneficial foranalysis purposes. For some purposes, census data may includeinformation pertaining to panelists and non-panelists.

The panelist identifier 704 of the illustrated example of FIG. 7identifies the panelists that requested the media. While in theillustrated example the panelist identifier 704 is used, any otherinformation that may be used to identify the panelist may additionallyor alternatively be used such as, for example, a mobile deviceidentifier (e.g., a MAC address), a panelist name, a telephone number, acookie, etc. While in the illustrated example the requested website 706is used, any additional or alternative information may be used toidentify the media that was requested such as, for example, the vendoridentifier, the tag encoded in the media 204, etc.

The timestamp column 710 of the illustrated example of FIG. 7 representsa date and/or time when information associated with the media (e.g., awebsite) was requested. However, the timestamp column 710 mayalternatively represent a time when the requested media was rendered(e.g., displayed, presented, etc.) by the client device 106. Storing atimestamp (e.g., date and/or time) enables analysis of when usersrequest particular media (e.g., to determine issues such as whetherusers are more likely to request media from a news website (e.g.,www.cnn.com) on a weekend, during a weekday, etc.).

Flowcharts representative of example machine readable instructions forimplementing the AME server 102 of FIGS. 1-4 are shown in FIGS. 8, 9, 11and 12. In this example, the machine readable instructions comprise aprogram for execution by a processor such as the processor 1312 shown inthe example processor platform 1300 discussed below in connection withFIG. 13. The program may be embodied in software stored on a tangiblecomputer readable storage medium such as a CD-ROM, a floppy disk, a harddrive, a digital versatile disk (DVD), a Blu-ray disk, or a memoryassociated with the processor 1312, but the entire program and/or partsthereof could alternatively be executed by a device other than theprocessor 1312 and/or embodied in firmware or dedicated hardware.Further, although the example program is described with reference to theflowcharts illustrated in FIGS. 8, 9, 11 and 12, many other methods ofimplementing the example AME sever 102 may alternatively be used. Forexample, the order of execution of the blocks may be changed, and/orsome of the blocks described may be changed, eliminated, or combined.

As mentioned above, the example processes of FIGS. 8, 9, 11 and/or 12may be implemented using coded instructions (e.g., computer and/ormachine readable instructions) stored on a tangible computer readablestorage medium such as a hard disk drive, a flash memory, a read-onlymemory (ROM), a compact disk (CD), a digital versatile disk (DVD), acache, a random-access memory (RAM) and/or any other storage device orstorage disk in which information is stored for any duration (e.g., forextended time periods, permanently, for brief instances, for temporarilybuffering, and/or for caching of the information). As used herein, theterm tangible computer readable storage medium is expressly defined toinclude any type of computer readable storage device and/or storage diskand to exclude propagating signals and to exclude transmission media. Asused herein, “tangible computer readable storage medium” and “tangiblemachine readable storage medium” are used interchangeably. Additionallyor alternatively, the example processes of FIGS. 8, 9, 11 and/or 12 maybe implemented using coded instructions (e.g., computer and/or machinereadable instructions) stored on a non-transitory computer and/ormachine readable medium such as a hard disk drive, a flash memory, aread-only memory, a compact disk, a digital versatile disk, a cache, arandom-access memory and/or any other storage device or storage disk inwhich information is stored for any duration (e.g., for extended timeperiods, permanently, for brief instances, for temporarily buffering,and/or for caching of the information). As used herein, the termnon-transitory computer readable medium is expressly defined to includeany type of computer readable storage device and/or storage disk and toexclude propagating signals and to exclude transmission media. As usedherein, when the phrase “at least” is used as the transition term in apreamble of a claim, it is open-ended in the same manner as the term“comprising” is open ended.

The example program of FIG. 8 initiates logging tagged impressions atthe example AME server 102 (FIGS. 1-4). The example program of FIG. 8begins at block 802 when the AME server 102 receives the beacon 210 fromthe client device 106 in response to the tag 206 (e.g., executableinstructions) included in the media 204 being executed by a clientdevice. For example, the beacon handler 402 (FIG. 4) may receive thebeacon 210. In some examples, the beacon handler 402 transmits anacknowledgement message in response to receiving the beacon 210 to thedevice that sent the beacon. In other examples, no response is provided,but the data contained in the beacon is logged.

At block 804, the beacon parser 404 determines whether the monitoringinformation (e.g., the location identifier 212, the media identifier214, the timestamp 216, a cookie, etc.) included in the beacon 210 isencrypted. For example, a location identifier 212 included in the beacon210 may be encrypted using advanced encryption standard (AES) algorithmsto protect the privacy of the user. If, at block 804, the beacon parser404 determines that the monitoring information is encrypted, then, atblock 806, the decrypter 406 decrypts the monitoring information. Forexample, the decrypter 406 may use AES algorithms to decrypt themonitoring information.

If, at block 804, the beacon parser 804 determines the monitoringinformation is not encrypted or after the decrypter 406 decrypts themonitoring information at block 806, control proceeds to block 808 atwhich the beacon parser 404 parses the monitoring information includedin the beacon 210 for a location identifier 212. If, at block 810, thebeacon parser 404 finds the location identifier 212, then, at block 812,the beacon parser 404 extracts a device location included in thelocation identifier 212. The device location may be used to determinewhether to correlate the monitoring information with a panelist.

If, at block 810, the beacon parser 404 does not find a locationidentifier 212 or after the beacon parser 404 extracts the devicelocation from the location identifier 212 at block 812, control proceedsto block 814 at which the tagged impression logger 408 stores a recordof the monitored information provided by the beacon 210. For example,the beacon parser 404 may extract a requested media identifier (e.g., aURL address), a vendor identifier, etc. that may be included in thebeacon 210. At block 815, the tagged impression logger 408 flags therecord as possible panel data or census data. For example, if the beaconparser 404 extracted the device location from the location identifier212, the tagged impression logger 408 flags the record as possible paneldata. Otherwise, if the beacon parses 404 did not find a locationidentifier 212, the tagged impression logger 408 flags the record ascensus data.

At block 816, the time stamper 424 associates a time period (e.g., 1:00AM Central Standard Time (CST) to 1:01 AM CST) and date (e.g., Jan. 1,2013) with the tagged media impression. For example, the time stamper424 may append the period of time and date information to an end of theimpression entry in the data store 420 and/or may provide the period oftime and date information to the data storer 418.

At block 818, the AME server 102 determines whether to continueprocessing beacons. If, at block 818, the AME server 102 determines tocontinue processing beacons (e.g., the beacon handler 402 is continuingto receive beacons as a result of a tag included in a media response),control returns to block 802 to receive another beacon 210 from theclient device 210 in response to executing executable instructions inthe tag 206 included in the media 204. Otherwise, if, at block 818, theAME server 102 determines to end processing beacons (e.g., due to aserver shutdown event, etc.), the example process 800 of FIG. 8 thenends.

The example program 900 of FIG. 9 determines whether to correlate taggedmedia impression with registered panelists, and marks the tagged mediaimpression as either census data or panel data, accordingly. The exampleprogram of FIG. 9 begins at block 902 at which the reporter 422 preparesthe tagged media impressions log to be combined with panelistinformation. For example, the reporter 422 may identify the mediaimpressions in the tagged media impressions log that include devicelocations based on whether the tagged media impression is flagged ascensus data or possible panel data. Similarly, at block 904, thereporter 422 prepares the panelists log for combining with the taggedmedia impressions log. For example, the reporter 422 may utilize thedata table 600 to associate the tagged media impression with a panelistidentifier.

At block 906, the location handler 410 identifies reference locationsassociated with the registered panelists to compare to the devicelocation information included in the tagged media impressions log. Forexample, the location handler 410 may parse the reference locationsstored in the data table 600 in the data store 420 and identify thereference locations that have the same (or nearly the same) longitudecoordinates or latitude coordinates as the device location information.

At block 908, the distance calculator 412 calculates the distancebetween a reference location and a device location. If, at block 910,the comparator 414 determines that the device location is within areference area associated with the reference location, then, at block912, the panelist associator 416 marks the corresponding impression aspanel data. At block 914, the panelist associator 416 uses the datatable 600 to associate the impression with a panelist identifier.Control then proceeds to block 920 to determine whether to continuecorrelating impressions with panel data.

Returning to block 910, if the comparator 414 determines that the devicelocation is not within the reference area associated with the referencelocation, then, at block 916, the AME server 102 determines if it is atthe end of the panelists log. For example, the location handler 410 maydetermine whether there are additional reference locations in the datatable 600 to test against the device location information. If, at block916, the location handler 410 determines it is not at the end of thereference locations to test (e.g., there are additional referencelocations in the data table 600), control returns to block 908 tocalculate the distance between another reference location and the devicelocation. Otherwise, if, at block 916, the location handler 410determines it is at the end of the panelists log (e.g., there are nomore additional reference locations to test against the device locationinformation), then, at block 918, the panelist associator 416 marks thecorresponding impression as census data. Control then proceeds to block920 to determine whether to continue correlating impressions with paneldata.

At block 920, the AME server 102 determines whether to continuecorrelating impressions with panelists. If, at block 920, the AME server102 determines to continue correlating impressions with panel data(e.g., the tagged media impressions log includes additional devicelocations to test, etc.), control returns to block 906 to identifyreference locations associated with panel data. Otherwise, if, at block920, the AME server 102 determines to end correlating impressions withpanel data (e.g., there are no additional tagged media impressions tocheck), then, at block 922, the reporter 422 generates a report and theprocess 900 of FIG. 9 ends.

FIG. 10 is an example applet 1000 including pseudo code that may beexecuted to generate a beacon in response to accessing tagged media at aclient device. For example, the applet 1000 may be embedded in the media204. In the illustrated example of FIG. 10, the applet 1000 includes anexample monitoring information retrieval section 1002 and an examplebeacon transmission section 1004. In the illustrated example, themonitoring information retrieval section 1002 defines the values of themonitoring information (e.g., the location identifier 212, the mediaidentifier 214, the timestamp 216) included in the beacon 210. Forexample, the monitoring information retrieval section 1002 includes anexample location identifier defining block 1006, an example mediaidentifier defining line 1008 and an example timestamp defining line1010. The example location identifier defining block 1006 of FIG. 10determines whether the client device 106 has access to a locationapplication programming interface (API) and defines the value for thelocation identifier 212 accordingly. For example, when the client device126 has access to the location API, line 1006A retrieves device locationinformation via the location API and stores the value for the locationidentifier 212. Otherwise, if the client device 126 does not have accessto the location API, line 1006B stores a value indicating that no devicelocation is provided (e.g., a null or empty value, “False,” “N/A,” “0,”etc.). In the illustrated example, the media identifier defining line1008 retrieves media identification information from the media 204 andstores the value for the media identifier 214. In the illustratedexample, the timestamp defining line 1010 retrieves date and timeinformation for the media request and stores the value for the timestamp216.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 10, the example applet 1000 includesthe example beacon transmission section 1004 to generate the beacon 210and to transmit the beacon 210 to, for example, the AME server 102. Forexample, example beacon generating line 1012 uses the locationidentifier 212, the media identifier 214 and the timestamp 216 to definethe beacon 210. At example beacon transmitting line 1014, the applet1000 causes the client device 106 to transmit the beacon 210 to, forexample, the AME server 102. In some examples, the applet 1000 logs thebeacon 210 and transmits one or more beacons 210 at a later time. Forexample, the applet 1000 may cause the client device 106 to periodically(e.g., every 24 hours) transmit logged beacons 210 to the AME server102.

The example program 1100 of FIG. 11 illustrates an example method thatmay be executed by a computing device of an audience measurement entityto collect monitoring information from tagged media. The example programof FIG. 11 begins at block 1102 when the tag handler 110 instructs theexample media hosting server 104 to insert a reference to an executabletag in the media 204. For example, the tag handler 110 may cause themedia hosting server 104 to include a dummy image in the media 204 thatthe media hosting server 104 desires to monitor. At block 1104, the taghandler 110 receives a request for the executable tag from the clientdevice 106. For example, the media hosting server 104 may respond to arequest for media from the client device 106 with the media 204including the reference. When the client device 106 presents the media204, the tag handler 110 receives the client device request for theexecutable tag in response to the reference. In some implementations,block 1104 may not be included. For example, the tag handler 110 mayprovide the media hosting server 104 the tag 206 along with thereference and, thus, when the client device 106 presents the media 204,the media hosting server 104 receives the client device request for theexecutable tag in response to execution of the reference. In some otherimplementations, the tag handler 110 may provide the tag 206 andinstruct the media hosting server 104 to embed the tag 206 into thecorresponding media 204. Thus, when the client device 106 presents themedia 204, no request is made by the client device 106 for an executabletag. Rather, the client device 106 executes the tag 206, which isalready present in the media. At block 1106, the tag handler 110transmits the executable tag to the client device 106. For example, thetag handler 110 may retrieve the executable tag 206 from the data store420 and communicate the executable tag 206 to the client device 106. Anexample executable tag 206 is described in further detail below inconnection with FIG. 12.

At block 1108, the AME server 102 receives the beacon 210 from theclient device 106. For example, the client device 106 generates thebeacon 210 in response to executing the executable tag 206 and transmitsthe beacon 210 to the AME server 102. The example process of FIG. 11then ends.

The example program 1200 of FIG. 12 illustrated the operation of anexample tag in generating an example beacon in response to beingexecuted due to an access to the tagged media 204. Thus, the exampleprogram of FIG. 12 may be used to implement the executable tag 206. Theexample program of FIG. 12 begins at block 1202 when the executable tag206 causes the client device 106 to retrieve media identificationinformation from the media 204. For example, the media hosting server104 may encode the media identification information (e.g., a watermark,a signature, metadata, etc.) into the media 204 that the client device106 decodes when accessing the media 204. At block 1204, the executabletag 206 causes the client device 106 to request access to a locationapplication programming interface (API) of the client device 106. Forexample, the client device 106 may request permission from a user toaccess the location API. If, at block 1206, access to the location APIis granted, then, at block 1208, the client device 106 retrieves thedevice location information of the client device via the location API.In some examples, the authorization is granted once and future requestsare not needed to access the location API

If, at block 1206, access to the location API is not granted (e.g., theuser denies the request) or after the client device 106 retrieves thedevice location information at block 1208, then, at block 1210, theexecutable tag 206 causes the client device 106 to retrieve date andtime information for the media request. For example, the client device106 may include a calendar and clock that the client device 106 accessesto retrieve the date and time information. At block 1212, the executabletag 206 causes the client device 106 to generate the beacon 210. Forexample, the beacon 210 may generate the location identifier 212 toidentify the device location information, generate the media identifier214 to identify the media identification information, generate thetimestamp 216 to identify the date and time information, and package thelocation identifier 212, the media identifier 214 and the timestamp 216into the beacon 210. At block 1214, the executable tag 206 causes theclient device 106 to transmit the beacon 210 to the AME server 102. Theexample process of FIG. 12 then ends.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of an example processor platform 1300 capableof executing the instructions of FIGS. 8, 9, 11 and/or 12 to implementthe example AME server 102 of FIGS. 1-4. The processor platform 1300 canbe, for example, a server, a personal computer, a mobile device (e.g., acell phone, a smart phone, a tablet such as an iPad™), a personaldigital assistant (PDA), an Internet appliance, a DVD player, a CDplayer, a digital video recorder, a Blu-ray player, a gaming console, apersonal video recorder, a set top box, or any other type of computingdevice.

The processor platform 1300 of the illustrated example includes aprocessor 1312. The processor 1312 of the illustrated example ishardware. For example, the processor 1312 can be implemented by one ormore integrated circuits, logic circuits, microprocessors or controllersfrom any desired family or manufacturer.

The processor 1312 of the illustrated example includes a local memory1313 (e.g., a cache). The processor 1312 of the illustrated example isin communication with a main memory including a volatile memory 1314 anda non-volatile memory 1316 via a bus 1318. The volatile memory 1314 maybe implemented by Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM),Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), RAMBUS Dynamic Random Access Memory(RDRAM) and/or any other type of random access memory device. Thenon-volatile memory 1316 may be implemented by flash memory and/or anyother desired type of memory device. Access to the main memory 1314,1316 is controlled by a memory controller.

The processor platform 1300 of the illustrated example also includes aninterface circuit 1320. The interface circuit 1320 may be implemented byany type of interface standard, such as an Ethernet interface, auniversal serial bus (USB), and/or a PCI express interface.

In the illustrated example, one or more input devices 1322 are connectedto the interface circuit 1320. The input device(s) 1322 permit(s) a userto enter data and commands into the processor 1312. The input device(s)can be implemented by, for example, an audio sensor, a microphone, acamera (still or video), a keyboard, a button, a mouse, a touchscreen, atrack-pad, a trackball, isopoint and/or a voice recognition system.

One or more output devices 1324 are also connected to the interfacecircuit 1320 of the illustrated example. The output devices 1324 can beimplemented, for example, by display devices (e.g., a light emittingdiode (LED), an organic light emitting diode (OLED), a liquid crystaldisplay, a cathode ray tube display (CRT), a touchscreen, a tactileoutput device, a printer and/or speakers). The interface circuit 1320 ofthe illustrated example, thus, typically includes a graphics drivercard, a graphics driver chip or a graphics driver processor.

The interface circuit 1320 of the illustrated example also includes acommunication device such as a transmitter, a receiver, a transceiver, amodem and/or network interface card to facilitate exchange of data withexternal machines (e.g., computing devices of any kind) via a network1326 (e.g., an Ethernet connection, a digital subscriber line (DSL), atelephone line, coaxial cable, a cellular telephone system, etc.).

The processor platform 1300 of the illustrated example also includes oneor more mass storage devices 1328 for storing software and/or data.Examples of such mass storage devices 1328 include floppy disk drives,hard drive disks, compact disk drives, Blu-ray disk drives, RAIDsystems, and digital versatile disk (DVD) drives.

The coded instructions 1332 of FIGS. 8, 9, 11 and/or 12 may be stored inthe mass storage device 1328, in the volatile memory 1314, in thenon-volatile memory 1316, and/or on a removable tangible computerreadable storage medium such as a CD or DVD.

From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that example methods,apparatus and articles of manufacture have been disclosed which collectmonitoring information at a census level, while allowing the censuslevel monitoring information to be correlated with panelist data, and,while protecting the privacy of the panelist and the anonymity of thepanelist.

Although certain example methods, apparatus and articles of manufacturehave been disclosed herein, the scope of coverage of this patent is notlimited thereto. On the contrary, this patent covers all methods,apparatus and articles of manufacture fairly falling within the scope ofthe claims of this patent.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: accessing a message with acomputing device of a monitoring entity, the message sent from arequesting device in response to accessing media that includes a tagcausing the requesting device accessing the media to send the message tothe monitoring entity with an identification of a geographic location ofthe requesting device and media identifying information; determining,with the computing device of the monitoring entity, locations of aplurality of panelist homes; comparing, with the computing device of themonitoring entity, the geographic location of the requesting device withthe locations of the plurality of panelist homes; and when thegeographic location of the requesting device is within a thresholddistance of a first location of a first one of the plurality of panelisthomes: identifying, with the computing device of the monitoring entity,a user of the requesting device as a panelist residing at the first oneof the panelist homes; and associating, with the computing device of themonitoring entity, the media identifying information with panelist dataassociated with the first one of the panelist homes.
 2. The method asdefined in claim 1, wherein the media identifying informationcorresponds to media accessed by the requesting device at the geographiclocation.
 3. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the tag is areference to an executable monitoring instruction hosted external to themedia.
 4. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the message is aHypertext Transfer Protocol message.
 5. The method as defined in claim1, wherein the geographic location is determined via a globalpositioning system.
 6. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein thegeographic location is determined via cellular data.
 7. The method asdefined in claim 1, wherein the geographic location is determined viaWi-Fi data.
 8. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein a portion ofthe message is encrypted.
 9. A system comprising: a beacon handler toaccess a message sent from a requesting device in response to accessingmedia that includes a tag causing the requesting device accessing themedia to send the message to the beacon handler with an identificationof a geographic location of the requesting device and media identifyinginformation; a location handler to identify locations of a plurality ofpanelist homes; the location handler to compare the geographic locationof the requesting device with the locations of the plurality of panelisthomes; a comparator to determine whether the geographic location of therequesting device is within a threshold distance of a first location ofa first one of the plurality of panelist homes; and a panelistassociator to identifying a user of the requesting device as a panelistresiding at the first one of the panelist homes and associate the mediaidentifying information to panelist data associated with the first oneof the panelist homes when an output of the comparator indicates thegeographic location of the requesting device is within the thresholddistance of the first location of the first one of the plurality ofpanelist homes.
 10. The system as defined in claim 9, wherein the mediaidentifying information corresponds to media accessed by the requestingdevice at the geographic location.
 11. The system as defined in claim 9,further including a beacon parser to extract the geographic location ofthe requesting device from the message.
 12. The system as defined inclaim 9, further including a decrypter to decrypt the message.
 13. Thesystem as defined in claim 9, wherein the message is a HypertextTransfer Protocol message.
 14. A tangible computer readable storagemedium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a processor toat least: access a message sent from a requesting device in response toaccessing media that includes a tag causing the requesting deviceaccessing the media to send the message to a monitoring entity with anidentification of a geographic location of the requesting device andmedia identifying information; identify locations of a plurality ofpanelist homes; compare the geographic location of the requesting devicewith the locations of the plurality of panelist homes; determine whetherthe geographic location of the requesting device is within a thresholddistance of a first location of a first one of the plurality of panelisthomes; and identifying a user of the requesting device as a panelistresiding at the first one of the panelist homes and associate the mediaidentifying information to panelist data associated with the first oneof the panelist homes when the geographic location of the requestingdevice is within the threshold distance of the first location of thefirst one of the plurality of panelist homes.
 15. The tangible computerreadable storage medium as defined in claim 14, wherein the instructionsfurther cause the processor to extract the geographic location of therequesting device from the message.
 16. The tangible computer readablestorage medium as defined in claim 14, wherein the instructions furthercause the processor to: determine a portion of the message is encrypted;and decrypt the message.
 17. The tangible computer readable storagemedium as defined in claim 14, wherein the message is a HypertextTransfer Protocol message.
 18. The tangible computer readable storagemedium as defined in claim 14, wherein the geographic location of therequesting device is determined via a global positioning system.
 19. Thetangible computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 14,wherein the geographic location of the requesting device is determinedvia cellular data.
 20. The tangible computer readable storage medium asdefined in claim 14, wherein the geographic location of the requestingdevice is determined via Wi-Fi data.